Man accused of pimping wife on Craigslist

A Minnesota man forced his wife to work as a prostitute in Chicago and across the country, threatening to harm their child if she tried to quit, authorities said Wednesday.

Clinton Danner, 32, began pimping his wife of four years when she was pregnant, according to the Cook County sheriff's department.

The couple and their 3-year-old daughter lived in a minivan as they traveled to New York, Washington, D.C. Florida and Georgia, where he arranged tricks for her via the Internet, including through ads on Craigslist, prosecutors said.

While at a River North hotel, the wife contacted police after Danner told her he was driving up from Florida to confront her about how little money she was making, authorities said. He was arrested on felony charges of pandering over the weekend.

Danner, who has felony convictions in Minnesota for drugs and lottery fraud, regularly threatened to take away or harm their child if his wife didn't act as a prostitute, authorities said. He allegedly never left her alone with the child.

He worked with a church youth group when he met the woman when she was 17, prosecutors said.

In a telephone interview Wednesday, the woman's parents said they learned last year that she was involved in prostitution. "We were in shock," said her father. "We told her, 'He doesn't love you or he wouldn't do that to you.'"

She stayed with her parents and another relative for several months but eventually reunited with her husband, her father said. She called Sunday night after Danner's arrest. "She said she was safe from Danner and that she'd turned him in to the police," her father said.

Circuit Judge Donald Panarese set bail at $150,000 for Danner and barred him from any contact with his wife.